CHLOE MADELEY wants fans to stop bad–mouthing ex James Haskell, declaring: “I actually feel a bit sorry for him.”
The personal trainer, 37, told The Sun on Sunday: “There’s kind of like a heavy insinuation that he’s not a nice guy.
“And look, James and I went through our battles.
“But we’re co-parenting really well, and 50 per cent of that accolade is on him.
“I want him to have some of that respect from people, which I don’t see him getting.”
Chloe and the former rugby union ace, 39, announced the end of their five-year marriage in October.
But a month later we revealed how James had partied in Ibiza with a DJ lookalike of his wife, also called Chloe.
The ex-England star-turned-DJ shared a booth with Gareth Gates’ ex, DJ Chloe McLennan, at Ibiza’s Ocean Beach club during a number of sets.
During her ITVBe show, Chloe Madeley: A Family Affair, Chloe admitted: “One of the biggest rows we’ve ever had was on camera.
“It happened when he was in Ibiza and posted photos on Instagram of other girls’ a**es.
“My argument was, ‘I don’t mind, that’s your job, but I don’t want you putting it on social media when everyone knows I’m your wife’.”
Since then they have been sharing responsibility for daughter Bodhi, who turns two on Saturday.
But James has faced criticism for being “disrespectful” to Chloe, most recently last month when he shared a clip of scantily clad women dancing.
But Chloe insists: “I honestly think James and I are doing a fantastic job and I’m very proud of us both.”
Despite the split being “completely miserable”, the pair are still often seen out together with Bodhi as they try to make the break-up as amicable as they can for their little girl.
Fans have even speculated that they are secretly back together, because they look so happy in family snaps.
However, Chloe revealed that they have both definitely moved on — and in fact, she expects the former England player to find a new partner soon.
She said: “It’ll probably happen for James long before it happens to me, if it hasn’t already.
“I’m waiting for the conversation to happen at some point.” As for her own love life, Chloe admitted: “I’m very, very single — like, painfully single.
“I don’t ever get approached, honestly.
“I have a very anti-social, ‘Don’t talk to me’ face, so I think that might have something to do with it.”
Chloe also revealed she would never make the first move — despite spending so much time surrounded by hot bodies at her training sessions.
She said: “I won’t lie, the atmosphere in the gym is a sexually charged atmosphere if there are single people around.
“But I would never just walk up to someone or like, have inviting eyes. I would never do that. So that kind of stands in my way a bit.
“I’m really confident in some ways — but I’m also socially very shy.”
She added: “I’m still figuring out, ‘What do I even want in a new relationship? How is that going to look?’ You know, given that I have a child.
“I’d love to stumble across someone. I would love someone to just kind of fall in my lap, metaphorically. But I’m not in a place where I’m out there actively looking for it.”
In fact, what Chloe most craves in her life at the moment is more time with her daughter while the toddler is at such a special age.
Spending time with my parents every weekend pulled me out of my lowest point.
Chloe Madeley
She explained: “It’s been a hell of a few years and at this point in my life, I’ll be quite honest with you, I would really, really love just to be a mum for a bit and stop everything else and just focus on that.
“What I’d really like to do is win the Lottery. Spend a year with my daughter before she goes to school.
“But unfortunately, like all the other parents, I can’t.
“Now we are separating, and down the line we’ll be divorcing, we need to be a dual-income household. I would also love to live abroad and just be with my daughter.
“But James would track me down and murder me — joking! — he would have none of it. But that would be my dream.”
I don’t mind being known as Richard and Judy’s daughter . . . I’ve never really struggled with that. I struggle more with the fact that I’m seen a lot more now as James Haskell’s ex.
Chloe Madeley
Chloe, who writes best-selling fitness books and has a hit podcast, is honest about how tough it has been adjusting to her new life.
She said: “I found myself last summer going through a very hard time, obviously.
“I’d just had my first baby, which is a massive upheaval for any woman in her life and her body and her work.
“And it was then my marriage started breaking down, which was very hard. Everything was unravelling for me.”
The daughter of telly legends Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan added: “Spending time with my parents every weekend pulled me out of my lowest point.”
The ex-model, who first got together with James in 2015, admitted of their relationship: “It got to a point where it was completely miserable. It was bleak. And very hard.
“Going through a break-up is tough, but compared to staying in that situation, it was absolutely the right decision. James and I both feel a million times better for it.”
There was no way I was going to drag my daughter into some ridiculous kind of child-weaponising, toxic situation.
Chloe Madeley
However, the health guru revealed she initially found it far harder than James did to be friends for their daughter’s sake.
She explained: “James is a very practical person and I’m not, I’m a very emotional person.
“For him it wouldn’t make sense that we broke up our marriage and then still carried on absolutely hating life and hating each other’s company.
“For him it was a matter of being very practical, like, ‘We better make an effort and get on and do this properly.’
“I’m a much more emotional person. But I also am so in love with my daughter — she’s my whole entire world.
“So there was no way I was going to drag my daughter into some ridiculous kind of child-weaponising, toxic situation.”
At least, in these most recent dark days, she did not agonise over comments on the relationship by online trolls, who in the past have sneered at both her “masculine” athlete’s physique AND her curves.
She said: “When I was younger I really took it to heart. It really upset me because I didn’t know who I was.
“And I was insecure, and I was Richard and Judy’s daughter and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.
“It was incredibly damaging to me, and I would attribute it being part of the reason why I have generalised anxiety disorder.”
These days, she insists, it is different: “I’m like, ‘How weird are you that you would go online having never met me and say anything negative about me?’ “I’m f***ing proud of myself. That’s the difference.
“When you’re grown and you’re mature and you can back yourself, you can look at that kind of nonsense and you see it as just that.”
There is only one thing that still really gets to her.
She says: “I don’t mind being known as Richard and Judy’s daughter . . . I’ve never really struggled with that.
“I struggle more with the fact that I’m seen a lot more now as James Haskell’s ex. I don’t love that.”
However, with some of the emotion of the split dying down, she can joke about her hulking 6ft 4in ex.
Chuckling at his fondness for posting snaps in skimpy swimming trunks, Chloe, who is an ambassador for gut-health supplement Symprove, said: “James and all the rugby players love budgie smugglers. They get sent them for free. They’re like, ‘Let’s rock out with our c**k out’.”
And she thinks James’s exhibitionist side would make him a natural on Strictly Come Dancing, adding: “Every single time I’ve seen him this summer he’s in his sliders with pink sparkly toenails. He’d love Strictly.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if James did Strictly.”
But as for going on the troubled BBC ballroom show herself, the former contestant on Dancing On Ice and The Jump said: “I can’t think of anything worse.
“I want to do less. I’ve completely changed.”
She explained: “Since the day Bodhi came into my life she is the thing that makes me the happiest. She pulls me through everything without even knowing it.
“She makes me smile and laugh every day. She’s the reason why I am standing here today. I just thank my lucky stars that I have her.”
